Monuments destroyed to wipe out Iranian Christian heritage
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
TEHRAN, IRAN (Worthy News)– Historic Christian monuments in Iran are being destroyed, or allowed to fall into disrepair in an attempt by the Islamic authorities to wipe out that country’s Christian heritage.
Pre-Islamic Churches and cemeteries are especially at risk, prompting Mohabat News to report that “Islamic Republic officials, unsuccessful in stopping the growth of Christianity among the people by pressuring them, arresting them and banning Christian converts from attending church services, want to destroy historical Christian monuments to totally wipe the Christian heritage from the face of Iran.”
Earlier this month, the Iranian Christian news agency also reported that a 200-year old Christian cemetery in Kerman province was completely demolished; last year the province’s Church of St. Andrew was bulldozed overnight despite having been registered as a national monument, requiring the 60-year-old building to be protected.
Although registered as a national monument in 2002, the Church of Haftvan in Salmas county may collapse after vandals destroyed the church’s front yard, resulting in soil erosion that has weakened its walls; other vandals removed crosses in a cemetery in Bushehr dating back to the 1800’s, and what markers remain are overgrown and neglected.